


Something broken about this (fix it before it shatters)

by sweetlikesugar



Series: Two sides of the same coin [10]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Basically, Communication, Dream Pack Adam AU, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, Jealousy, Misunderstandings, Multi, Not Beta Read, Polyamory, Relationship Issues, Relationship Negotiation, k has a lot of issues and an inferiority complex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 15:33:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20260402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetlikesugar/pseuds/sweetlikesugar
Summary: Looking at Adam and Prokopenko was an exquisite kind of torture that Kavinsky inflicted upon himself. Seeing them close, soft touches and fond smiles, made the beast inside his chest pound at his sternum snarling and frothing at the mouth, wailing about another predator in his domain.Gathering rage for an undoubtedly bloody fight that would decide whether or not K could continue at Proko’s side, or if he’d have to relinquish his title as Prokopenko’s deadliest hound.





	Something broken about this (fix it before it shatters)

Adam really liked K.

Before Adam met him, he heard rumors. Of course he did. K was Aglionby’s hottest gossip, his name passed from mouth to mouth like an urban legend among the richest boys of Henrietta. He’s heard everything about the drug dealer forger throwing impossible parties that could rival Bacchanalia. He’s heard it all about the Bulgarian mobster trash, the waste of space, the teenage devil and his pack of sinners.

And then they met.

Adam saw everything people talked about and more. He saw the devil, the dreamer, and the lost cause. He saw a boy with a profound understanding of skin stained black and blue, a boy who understood what it felt like when anger dripped between your teeth and down your chin every time you opened your mouth. He saw a boy with the same knot of rage in this stomach. 

Kavinsky was a wildfire, Adam was a hail storm, and together they were a natural disaster.

Along with Proko, they formed some kind of a ragtag romance, all three of them fucked up beyond reason, finding a home in each other. Adam saw Kavinsky no one had the privilege to see before; a boy who melted at the softest touch of lips. A boy who preened under their touches like an overgrown cat. A boy who tucked himself into an arm wrapped around his waist or shoulders.

But sometimes...sometimes when K caught a glimpse of his boyfriends together his face would crease in bitter displeasure. His eyes turned murky and empty and his jaw would clench so hard Adam could almost hear K’s molars grind together painfully. K’s body would suddenly fill with heartbreak and loathing and Adam couldn’t understand any of it. 

* * *

In all the years Prokopenko kept adding to his band of rascals, K was never concerned about his place at Proko’s side. He’s never felt cornered, shoved into a cage, having to claw his way back out to his rightful rank.

Looking at Adam and Prokopenko was an exquisite kind of torture that Kavinsky inflicted upon himself. Seeing them close, soft touches and fond smiles, made the beast inside his chest pound at his sternum snarling and frothing at the mouth, wailing about another predator in his domain. Gathering rage for an undoubtedly bloody fight that would decide whether or not K could continue at Proko’s side, or if he’d have to relinquish his title as Prokopenko’s deadliest hound.

* * *

  


K’s composure was falling apart. He was losing his mind, slowly and steadily. His mask crumbled away piece by piece and he knew Adam could see glimpses of his spoiled insides just before K could fix his guard back in place. The smiles he plastered on his face were cracking in the middle and they would slip off his lips as soon as someone stopped looking. 

His mind was like a wire fox trap, tightening and cutting into him further and further the more he struggled against it. He became snappish, mean with an intent to hurt. He hated it. 

Everyone blamed it on the nightmares. No one was immune to bone-deep exhaustion of sleep depravity and K was its most frequent victim. He didn’t sleep much recently, relying on little green pills to launch him into the dreamscape whenever he wanted something, and even that wasn’t commonplace anymore. Whenever he dozed off he woke up gasping.

He wasn’t fooling either of his boyfriends because of course Joseph Kavinsky ended up dating the two people that could read him like a book and see through all of him down to his bones.

It was only a matter of time before they would confront him, peel back the layers of hurt and rotten skin and confirm his fears, all with gentle hands and saccharine smiles dripping venom. 

So, for now, Joseph Kavinsky pretended and prolonged the inevitable, biting back the anguish clogging his throat and basking in the last scraps of Prokopenko’s attention, waiting to be dethroned.

* * *

  


The house is unusually quiet. Adam knew K is in the cellar rooms and Swan is still sleeping. He wanders around the mansion, enjoying the peace until he gets bored.

He takes the steps down to the cellar.

It’s always cold in there and Adam always forgets. 

He peeks into the first room, door wide open. He would’ve passed it, if not for a pale arm hanging over the armrest of the couch. Adam snickers.

“K?”.

The arm flinches and darts out of sight. There’s a heavy sigh, and then two arms shoot over the armrest, flexing, palms up and fingers fanning out. There’s an unmistakable sick crack of joints popping back into place and a prolonged groan.

Adam walks a bit further into the room. He watches K fumble off the couch, grab blindly at a light blue box of cigarettes and prop himself on the armrest. He’s bundled up in a hoodie and sweatpants but his feet are bare. 

“What’s up?”.

He’s still hazy from sleep. Adam wonders if K made himself a pill that stops him from dreaming. The boy is bleary-eyed and pliant just enough that his armor is not fully in place yet. 

“You know where Proko is?”.

That wakes K up a little. His eyes become more lucid, the corner of his lips twitching downward.

“Do I look like his keeper?”.

Adam shrugs, keeping his voice light. “Dunno. He seems to have an extra sense for locating you. Thought maybe it was mutual”.

K grins. It’s a nasty smile, all teeth and poison. He exhales a puff of navy smoke, filling the room with the scent of cinnamon and sugar. “I’m not the one holding his leash, Parrish. Not anymore”.

There was that loathing. Adam saw it simmering right beneath K’s skin. He was pulled taut, always ready to pounce like a cornered animal. He was coming apart at the seams and Adam was his only witness.

“Well,” Adam tilted his head “that doesn’t really answer my question. But maybe you can tell me what died in your ass before Prokopenko loses his patience and corners you himself”. 

“Oh?” his tone sends shivers down Adam’s spine. His eyes are full of rage now, blazing with murderous intent. Now he’s the devil Adam has always heard about, now he’s the monster everyone whispers about. “Did he sent out his best hound to take care of his dirty laundry? Tell me, Parrish, did he sent you here to tell me my time has passed?”.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”.

“Are you here to take my crown?” he says the word crown like it’s an insult. “Tell me my reign is over? Are you here to demand more trinkets, more miracles? Say that my rest is over and now it’s time to dream more impossible things?”.

“What the-- is that what you think this is?” Adam frowns, at loss. “Is that what you think Proko wants from you?”.

“What else would he want, now that you are here?”. K’s dark eyes shine with anguish.

“Now that I’m-- K, what is this really about?”.

“Proko has always liked strays”. Adam frowns, bewildered as to where this conversation is headed. “When we first met I scared away the dog he was trying to befriend. I guess he took me instead”.

K throws the cigarette on the stone floor and grinds it down with his bare heel. He lights another one.

“But Proko gets bored very easily. A pretty face and dream junk can only keep him occupied for so long. I was never going to be enough on my own. So Proko goes to pick up other strays, making sure to look for fucked up and broken. It makes him feel good to nurture things, to fix the cracks and soothe the pain away. But he leaves just enough of it untreated so that it keeps festering. Just enough hurt to keep you loyal”.

The look he gives Adam is not what he expected. Adam expected anger, a vicious smile that’s all hate and heat. Instead, he gets empty eyes and drooping shoulders.

“And then you came along. You were so fucking angry. I watched you long before he brought you to my house, Parrish, long before he decided you were worth his time. It was like watching myself, but worse. 

And then-- And then suddenly a pretty face and a mouth full of rage are enough. You were everything to him somehow. I’ve never seen him like this before. It makes me wonder-”.

K looks somewhere above Adam’s shoulder. 

“Makes me wonder if maybe I’ve been a placeholder for something better this entire time”.

“You really-- You really think he would do that?” Adam rocks on his heels in disbelief. “You think he would just-- throw away all the shit you’ve been through together all these years because he found someone better?”.

K shrugs mildly and now his lack of emotions sends Adam into an ungodly rage. 

“You think I’m trying to push you out? That’s what you said? Here to take your place and demand stupid dream toys?”.

It’s like a switch has been flipped. It’s Adam who’s brimming with bitter anger and K watching him blandly.

“Fine” Adam narrows his eyes. “Let’s pretend you’re not full of shit” he ignores the eye roll. “So you and me-- you were just playing nice? Hoping that if you pretend to get along with me then Proko wouldn’t drop you? That’s what it was?”. 

Adam hates how wobbly his voice becomes.

“Fuck you. Being with you-- none of it was fake. Not a fucking second of it” K hunches over, crossing his arms over his chest, nails digging into his biceps, lips pressed in a grim line. Adam wonders if that’s the Kavinsky Prokopenko befriended, this angry jagged wreck of a boy. “I thought-- I thought being the first that stayed meant something, that _ I _fucking meant something more than just dreaming up miracles”.

Adam deflates when everything falls into place. He smiles.

“Joseph--”.

“Shut the fuck up”. K draws his shoulders up, already sealing away the vulnerability, baring his teeth like an animal anticipating hurt.

“Joseph”.

“Stop saying my fucking _ name _\--”.

Adam comes closer until there’s a breath wide distance between them. He raises his hand, slowly, and strokes just above K’s brow. “Look at me”.

K stubbornly glares at their feet, shoulders tense and walls up, and then he just...lets go. His jaw relaxes, his shoulders slouch. The arms crossed around his chest now act as a comfort and not a barrier between him and Adam. 

“I’m not trying to push you out,” he says, keeping up the gentle swipe of his thumb over K’s face. “No, shut up, look at me” he shushes when K grumbles. “Look at me, please”.

K reluctantly looks up. Adam takes K’s face in his hands and tilts it up so they make direct eye contact.

“I’m not here to take Proko away from you or anything like that. Honestly, I don’t think anyone can do that. You said all these years don’t matter-- bullshit, man. You know Proko better than any of us, that means something. No, shut up, I’m right” he flicks K on the nose when the shorter boy grimaces.

“And what you do-- all these dreamed up miracles-- it’s so fucking cool, but that’s not- that’s not why we keep you. You said ride and die, right? Us against the world. You meant that?”.

“Yes, I fucking did”.

Adam huffs a laugh.

“Fuck, then you’re my ride and die too. Christ K, you’re the first to understand what it feels like to come apart at the seams from anger. You let me move into your house. You’re my fucking family now” Adam takes a step back and shrugs. “I don’t know how you and Proko deal with stuff. I don’t know how you work your shit out. But I can fucking guarantee there’s no way Proko would just drop you like that”.

Adam can tell K isn’t fully convinced but he expected that.

“But between us. Are we good? We’re not breaking up or anything?”.

K scoffs, smirking lopsidedly. 

“Yeah, no” he grips Adam’s wrist where a dagger tattoo sits against freckled skin. “You’re stuck with me, Parrish. You’re stuck with all of us”.

Adam snorts out a laugh and leans down for a kiss, satisfied when K meets him halfway. 

  
  
  
  


The beast in his chest, for now, is pacified.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I AM BACK FROM THE DEAD
> 
> after manically rewriting the whole series in a span of a WEEK (give or take) and introducing a fuckton of dynamic changes i am HERE. thank you VERY much for your patience and i hope this work will make you happy, not only in terms of quality but also content. you may need to read the rewritten series to fully grasp the changes i made, because they're quite significant. 
> 
> let me know if this new and improved relationship sparks joy, leave comment and kudos if it DOES and, as always, join me at [ tumblr ](https://mindlesslittlefreak.tumblr.com) to discuss k's numerous issues


End file.
